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Media type:
E-Article
Title:
The dawn of the RNA World: Toward functional complexity through ligation of random RNA oligomers
Contributor:
Briones, Carlos;
Stich, Michael;
Manrubia, Susanna C.
Published:
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 2009
Published in:
RNA, 15 (2009) 5, Seite 743-749
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1261/rna.1488609
ISSN:
1355-8382;
1469-9001
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
A main unsolved problem in the RNA World scenario for the origin of life is how a template-dependent RNA polymerase ribozyme emerged from short RNA oligomers obtained by random polymerization on mineral surfaces. A number of computational studies have shown that the structural repertoire yielded by that process is dominated by topologically simple structures, notably hairpin-like ones. A fraction of these could display RNA ligase activity and catalyze the assembly of larger, eventually functional RNA molecules retaining their previous modular structure: molecular complexity increases but template replication is absent. This allows us to build up a stepwise model of ligation-based, modular evolution that could pave the way to the emergence of a ribozyme with RNA replicase activity, step at which information-driven Darwinian evolution would be triggered.